Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov tells reporters that Seagal “has been insistent for a long time in asking to be granted Russian citizenship”, adding that “he is known for his warm feelings to our country, he never made a secret of it, and he’s also a well-known actor, which gave grounds to make him a Russian citizen”.

Other foreign celebrities to be awarded Russian nationality by the Kremlin in recent years are French actor Gerard Depardieu and US boxer Roy Jones Jnr.